1. Field of Invention
This application is directed to a method for the resale of vehicles by dealers or financial institutions at auction and, in particular, a method for providing dealers greater control of the auction process.
2. Background
Many vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, sports utility vehicles are returned to the dealer or financial institution (collectively, dealer) after substantial use, either as a result of a vehicle coming “off lease” at the end of a leasing agreement, or by way of “trade-in” as partial payment for a new car. This results in vehicle dealers accumulating more vehicles than they are able to resell at their dealerships. Because dealerships have limited space for the display of both new and used cars, it is desirable for dealers to reduce this inventory of used cars as quickly and efficiently as possible. To accomplish this dealers make use of used car auctions run by third parties.
During the prior art auction process, the dealer would send information about the vehicle, including an estimated sale value, as determined by the dealer, by facsimile or orally over the phone to the auction representative. The auction representative would then enter all the information from the dealer, by hand, into their inventory database for an upcoming auction. This process lends itself to inputting errors.
The auctioneer then segregates the cars to be auctioned into two groups known as the “dealer lane” and “fleet lane”. The dealer lane is made of those cars consigned for auction by dealers and are generally smaller lots of cars, while the fleet lane is comprised of cars that come from sources, such as leasing companies, rental car companies, or other agencies, which sell cars in greater aggregate numbers per lot than dealers. The fleet lane, because of its greater size and perceived car quality, is auctioned at those auction times known to bring best value for the vehicle. An entry code is required to qualify a vehicle for the fleet lane so that dealers cannot consign their cars for auction in the fleet lane.
Although this process has been satisfactory, it suffers from the shortcoming that the manner in which the car is valued is subjective as the value is based more on the perceived demand for the car as determined by the dealer, any business relationships between the dealer and the auctioneer which may limit the number of auctions available to the dealer, and misinformation regarding the value of the car at the outset. Furthermore, it places dealers at a disadvantage to fleet cars because of their limited size of inventory.
Accordingly, a method and apparatus for auctioning used vehicles, which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art is desired.